Water Heaters

Paul Kamnikar

I need to increase the hot water in my home. Currently have a 40 gal heater installed. Is it better to buy larger heater or add a smaller one in series?

grindog

what type of heater is it

is it gas, electric, or indirect?

Paul Kamnikar

Gas

RonWHC

Gas heaters come

in different size tanks w/ different inputs. Your 40 gallon heater might have a 30,000 or 40,000 btu input. The larger the input, the faster the recovery. A tank w/ a low input will give you a fairly good 1st hour rating & low continuous rating. A tank w/ higher input will give you a better 1st hour plus higher continuous.

Not trying to be Larry Summers. But many feminine types in home, means larger heater w/ highest available input.

kevin coppinger_4

my suggestion....

turn up the temp on the heater(145F) then add a GOOD quality ASSE mixing valve to set the temp output to fixtures at 130F(Sparco, Taco 5000)...This will give you more hot water. When the time comes to replace (aka leaks) then upsize. kpc

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jim lockard

Maybe

The dip tube has failed. Thats a little pipe inside the heater on the cold water side mostly plastic and if it fails or breaks off then you short circuit the cold water into the hot and lose hot water supply temp. How many in your home? gender/age? 2nd choice you could go with a tankless heater like Rinnai that will give you continuous hot water at 3 to 5 gallon per min. flow rate. Best Wishes J.Lockard

Larry Weingarten

What is driving...

...the need for more hot water? Is it a room addition, more people, less hot coming from the present setup? Say, for instance that someone is taking long showers... a GFX shower heat exchanger would be a good fix. But there may just be a cross connection in the plumbing or a recirc line misbehaving. More info would help.

Yours, Larry

mp1969

Instantaneous gas fired heaters

There is a reason why all the major water heater manufacturers are adding instantaneous water heaters.
They are used almost exclusively in Europe and Japan.
Go to Takagi, Rennai or Noritz websites (to name a few)
Dispoable tank type heaters with their limited output and standby losses are being challenged with better technology.We have installed several Takagi and Rennai units and they are very efficient at providing all the hot water you need!
I have put in over a thousand tank type heaters in my 35 year career and would without hesitation install an instantaneous heater when my own tank type heater dies in the next 5 years.
The mindset here in America is still tank type but that is changing. I have seen Takagi units in series providing hot water to the laundry room of a Sheraton hotel with constant reliable hot water on demand.
If your water is not hard ( or softened) I would recommend looking into these heaters before I spend any money on a tank type heater.

MP 1969